Alchemist Recovery Podcast

How to Break the Spell of the Broken Brain Hey Randy, “Where’s the brain in your definition of addiction? You don’t have any mention of it at all.” I’ll often make it blunt and clear to establish some polarity by answering, “I don’t care about the brain.” Now, of course, I care about the brain. But what I absolutely do not want is to cast a spell of dependence. And one of them, one of the biggest ones we have in this society, is this idea of the broken brain. When someone points to the brain as a problem, for whatever reason or diagnosis, I have one question, “Do I still have a choice?” If I find myself sitting at a barstool, with a lime, salt, and three shots of tequila lined up in front of me, and because by every definition of “alcoholic” there is, I am one, the question remains, do I have a choice to indulge - or don’t I? I believe I do. (And of course, if I find myself in that situation, it’s because I’ve already made a long series of bad choices to get there! But still, in that moment, there’s one more choice to be made, and one last opportunity to make it a healthy one.) Because when a client says, “I can’t fill-in-the-blank because I’ve got this diagnosis. I don’t have a choice. I’ve got a broken brain,” someone has removed this client’s ability to choose. To me, that’s a powerful spell. One that we need to call out, pull apart and examine. That’s what we’re going to be diving into this episode, as well as looking at: * Do I have a choice or not? * What’s missing from Gabor Mate’s definition of addiction * The Spell’s effect on over 100,000,000 Americans with ADHD, anxiety & depression * Why a cyclical perception of time is one answer to fix things One of the most important aspects of my work is to bring clarity to what your choices are, where in the cycle you can make them, and then exactly what it’s going to take for you to pull them off. No one can do it for you. And the beauty is, once you’ve done that, no one can take it away. Blessings, Randy If you’re new to Alchemist Recovery, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Alchemist Recovery at alchemistrecovery.substack.com/subscribe

Based upon my own experiences from both sides of the line of sobriety, I know that addiction can feel like something that comes from outside of us and has taken over. That we’re under a spell or even possessed. In this episode, we’ll tie together Chinese medicine, core shamanism, psychology, and some classic monster mythology to explain why, and what it takes to break the hold. Starting with our simple four-part model from The Alchemist Recovery Program, we’ll show how the walls we build to protect ourselves end up blocking the very things we need to heal us. In this episode: * The TAHL model: how trauma, abuse, heartbreak, and loss come in like a meteor, leave a crater, and why our response matters more than the event itself * The Pericardium is the wall around the heart, and how it can keep good things from getting in and keep important stuff, like grief, from getting expressed out * You know the rule: the vampire can only enter when invited in, so we’ll look at how the lie of “I am not enough” becomes the invitation * How shame is the cement in the wall, and how we can dissolve it to break the spell And once the Spell is broken and we become conscious of the Void that remains, we’ll close with what fills it: a practice that generates our gift, and a place where that gift is received. I love these different approaches! Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that become medicine, because they just make sense. With blessings, Randy Get full access to Alchemist Recovery at alchemistrecovery.substack.com/subscribe

“I need something.” I hear this a lot, as this is a familiar feeling in addiction recovery. “But Randy, I got to have something to…ease the pain, fill the emptiness, make life manageable, etc…” But what happens when the thing we reach for keeps changing while the need underneath, and that pull of the Void, stays the same? In this episode of the Alchemist Recovery Podcast, I explore the difference between finding relief and addressing the hurts. Evaluating substitute addictions and seemingly healthy routines, we’ll look at how our sources of comfort can support growth or how they can sometimes be holding us back. I’m going to pull a favorite quote from William Blake and contrast it to another fave from Hunter S. Thompson. I’ll revive a few memories of my own recovery to coincide with and rub against various conversations with clients. From all this, we’ll consider how moments of presence, belonging and acknowledgement of heartbreak are exactly the medicine we need to address the Pull of the Void - and without needing to escape it. In this episode, we explore: * Replacing one addiction with another: Recognizing substitution and questioning when it stops helping. * Relief versus resolution: Appreciating progress while remaining open to deeper work. * Healthy habits and avoidance: Examining our relationship with self-improvement, structure, and control. * The practice of belonging: Finding connection through community, shared experience, and offering our gifts. * Feeling enough: Making room for grief, gratitude, and the possibility that we already have something worth trusting. Thanks for listening, it’s greatly appreciated! As are all of your questions: [email protected] With Blessings, Randy Free delivery here… Get full access to Alchemist Recovery at alchemistrecovery.substack.com/subscribe

What Do I Do When There’s Nothing I Can Do? Feeling Stuck and Feeling Powerless In recovery, as in life, there’s few feelings that are as frustrating as stuck-ness with seemingly no way out. Whether we’re talking a job, a marriage, a health diagnosis, or a legal battle, powerlessness stinks because it feels absolute and immovable, especially once we’ve stopped using our old coping mechanisms in the form of the go-to drug-of-choice. In this episode, we explore what a simple but powerful shift in perception can do. When we change our perception of medicine, the medicine of perception changes us I propose that what we call “stuck” is often based upon an assumption, and once we see it clearly, we get to trade powerlessness for empowering conscious choice. One of Tim Ferriss’s favorite guest quotes is, “How am I complicit in the situations I say I don’t want?” I love that. And when we reframe our stuckness into a choice, we restore our agency, we reclaim our power, even if every option still feels difficult. This episode covers: * The four common areas of stuckness: Job and finances, marriage and relationships, health and diagnosis, and legal struggles, along with the hidden assumption that keeps each one feeling immovable. * Shifting from assumption to choice, and why that shift alone begins to return power to you, even before you’ve solved anything. * Head versus heart decision-making, weighing logic against emotion, plus the deeper distinction between man-made power, which others can give or take away, and spiritual power, which no one can give you or take away from you. If you’ve ever felt trapped by circumstances outside your control, I hope this podcast episode sheds light along the path back to clarity, choice, and empowerment. Blessings! Randy Get full access to Alchemist Recovery at alchemistrecovery.substack.com/subscribe

We’ll dive a little deeper into the Newsletter’s info from this week and really examine what we mean by… * How does an addiction deliver Nurturance? * What exactly does this look like? * What can I do about it? Also, we go into everybody’s favorite of The Big 3: Food, Sex, Money, with regards to substitution. * Why does our relationship to these things change in recovery? * What are the forms of Nurturance we get from them? * What do we really need & how do we get it? There’s Power in this work, and if we don’t acknowledge, receive and redirect it into our new places of recovery, then the forces, habits, and spirits of addiction will gladly accept them back into the self-perpetuating cycles of the-way-things-have-always-been. Please like, share, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts on, and send me any questions or comments you have. Blessings! Randy Get full access to Alchemist Recovery at alchemistrecovery.substack.com/subscribe